sj81

Defender 21116, 16CH, 600TVL Hello all. First post. I've installed a Defender 21116, 16 channel, 600TVL system that I bought on sale last year. I haven't had any issues with it for the most part, and now I find myself with a worsening issue about a year in. As you can see in the attachment, three of my images are messed up. My initial thought was this was a simple wiring issue so I went to the DVR and reconnected each channel. No luck. I'd like to point out that I bought balons for data and power on either end and ran CAT5e back to the DVR: one pair for data, one for power. (Full details: I use the blue pair for power and green for data, with the solid being +). I haven't done anything outside yet because (1) I mounted them pretty secure and it's going to be a project to unmount them just to test that end, (2) the weather hasn't been cooperative. Do you guys think this is an outside wiring issue (on the camera end)? Or could this be something else? Also, when I purchased this I thought 600TVL was "good enough". It's not terrible, but I can't get a clear face of someone looking directly into the camera so I think that makes it pretty worthless. What quality do you feel is the best bang for your buck? I don't want to break the bank, but I don't want to skimp either. Thoughts? Thanks in advance! -Sean

51cent, Thank you for the suggestions. I have tried moving the wiring to other channels without success. One thing I've noted is that this creeped up around fall when the sun position (lighting) changed, and it does seem to be tied to lighting/processing. I say that because I can watch a live stream screwed up like the above photos, but then as soon as the light gets just right the image magically "fixes itself" and becomes reasonable again. That, to me, means the mechanical parts of the camera and the wiring are fine, and either a sensor, encoder, or NVR is the issue. I've hit Defender support pretty hard on this, and I've definitely learned more about cameras since then. But until I figure this issue out and research my next option, I'm stuck with this - and I'm hoping to make it work.

Thank you for being zero help. Glad you found the time in your day to make this post. If anyone has something intelligent to add, please feel free to join the conversation. It was the PERFECT amount of help. You bought a low end garbage 600tvl system in 2017....you failed to do even the most basic low level research and are therefore in the predicament your are in....there are literally hundreds of threads discussing various camera/nvr options...this time dont be as lazy as you were last time. There are plenty of other systems I could have purchased that are worse. And this was purchased in 2014. I didn't have issues until 2016. My point is that I asked for feedback on this issue, not criticism of my choice. If I wanted that opinion I would have asked for it. You made the choice not to scroll by my post and think "he got what he paid for" and instead took the time to criticize my choice. Which is my point. If you have nothing positive to add, keep it to yourself.

Thank you for being zero help. Glad you found the time in your day to make this post. If anyone has something intelligent to add, please feel free to join the conversation.

When it gets closer to dusk and the light levels are low (just before IR kicks in) the image seems to be fine. It's almost like when there's too much light it interprets it wrong. Channel 3 still looks like crap, though.